I wish I didn’t know that I will spend the rest of my life chasing things

I will never catch. Answers that will elude me, truths that will deceive me

maybe I write so that I can say I do more than wish.

Maybe I am trying to take steer of my ship

as it sails routes along stars

and not go mad asking myself how the stars got there.

I don’t even know how my ship

is able to exist

and the clouds that fuel it are no more clear than the glass I exhale.

The words I have carved onto the ivory of my bones

are configurations of reality—

like the answers found from lead lines and compassas, they

are a false sense of control, but at least I didn’t just wish my life away

hoping someone would just hand my ship back to me.

At least I didn’t wish my life away

hoping answers would write themselves.

About Isabelle

She/her

Isabelle is an undergraduate student at The University of Maine at Farmington and currently a co-editor of The Sandy River Review. She is a hopeless caffeine addict and is often seen in local coffee shops pouring her heart out to her notebooks over an iced coffee.

Instagram: @isabelleva29 / @isabellesisleofar